The president of the European Football Association (UEFA), Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin, today defended the new Champions League, considering that it puts sporting merit before economic benefits.

Vienna, May 11 (Prensa Latina)-- The president of the European Football Association (UEFA), Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin, today defended the new Champions League, considering that it puts sporting merit before economic benefits.

Soccer wins when UEFA listens to the majority of clubs, fans and coaches, and draws a line once and for all on the notion of qualifying for competitions based on coefficients, he said.

In this regard, he added that they decided to be true to their principles and values, by enhancing sporting merit over profit.

The day before, UEFA approved the new Champions League from the 2024-2025 season, with an initial league phase with eight matches and discarded the criterion of club coefficient to allocate two of the four additional places that the competition will have.

Ceferin also criticized the promoters of the Super League, which was intended to bring together only the elite sides of the Old Continent.

A handful of soccer oligarchs and aristocrats launched a project that would have trampled on all the values of European soccer and society, he said.

However, the truth is that the new format of the Champions League is quite similar to what the Superliga proposed, since the system to be used will require the big teams to play against each other.